Railway car wall



14, 5- J. s. swANN 2,332,519

RAILWAY CAR WALL Filed June so, 1944 s Sheets-Shet 1 James J". fizualzrz, \1 BY Aug. 14, s SWANN RAILWAY CAR WALL Filed June so, 1944 s Sheets-Sheet s INVENTOR, 1 Jamea 6 62087272,

Patented Aug. 14, 1945 RAILWAY CAR WALL James S. Swami, Hlomewood, assignor to Standard Railway Equipment Manufacturing Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application June 30, 1944, Serial No. 542,854

7 Claims.

This invention relates to railway freight cars and particularly to side walls for open top railway cars, such as hopper and gondola cars, though the construction may be adapted to other portions of railway freight cars.

An object of the invention is to provide a side wall which not only performs the function of a girder, but is also a load retaining means and also is arranged to obtain approximately the maximum cubical capacity of the car within a given, widthand height thereof.

Another object of the invention isto provide a post or strut between the top and bottom chords of the girder, which post is provided by a novel arrangement and formation of the vertical margins of the side wallsheets or web members of the girder in combination with a light weight rolled steel bar, thereby forming not only a strong column between top and bottom chord, but also a strong vertical beam to resist a horizontal load from inside or. outside of said side wall.

A further object is to so form said posts so as not to unduly interfere with the discharge of lading when the car is discharging its load through the bottom doors, or when upside-down in an unloading machine.

Another object is to so design the various parts making up the wall structure so that they may be readily secured together by continuous weldmg.

Further objects and advantages will appear in the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters indicate like parts, and where.-

Fig. l is a side elevation of a portion of a hopper car side wall illustrating an application of the invention thereto.

Fig. 2 is a section on line 22 of Fig. 1.

of the slot, as at I l.

Fig. 3 is an-enlarged broken section on line 33 car and comprises an upper chord or frame member I; a lower chord or frame member 2; web plates3 and posts or struts 4.

The bottom chord 2 is formed of an ordinary angle bar, one flange 5 of which is disposed horizontally and the other, flange 6 of which is disposed vertically. This bottom chord extends from bolster to bolster of the car.

The posts or struts 4 are formed of ordinary T-bars, with the stem 1 thereof disposed normal to the plane of the wall. A vertical slot 8 is cut from the bottom upwardly in the stem 1 so that said post may be positioned over or straddle the flange 6 of the bottom chord 2. The slot 8 is cut wide enough to also accommodate the upper vertical flange 9 of the hopper sheet, which sheet below said flange inclines downwardly and inwardly, as at 10. From the slot 8 to the flange of the T the bottom of the post is cut off at the same inclination as that of the hopper sheet and is welded thereto and to the edge The top chord l is an ordinary bulb angle and the upper outer and inner corners of the stem 1 of the post 4 are cut out, as at i2 and 13, respectively, to receive the bulb l4 and vertical flange [5 of said top chord member 1, which, as is apparent from Fig. 1, extends from end to end of the car. The T-stakes or posts 4 are spaced apart longitudinally of the car, upon either side thereof, and the upper and lower ends-of the base flange portion-of each T- post is chamfered or cut away, as at I 6 and I1, respectively,- for reasons which will be hereinafter explained.

Between each pair of adjacent posts is provided a wall or webplate 3, each plate extending from the upper chord l, to the lower chord 2 and secured to each- Each plate is formed from a suitably sized flat metallic plate, and each side thereof isbent on a vertical line inwardly from the edges of the plate to form the flanges l8 and I9. As will be apparent from Fig. 2, the flanges are formed at an acute angle, the base of the flanges being welded, as at 20, to the outer edges of. the web 1 of the post, and the inner edge of the flanges l8 and I9 are welded, as at 2|, to theedges of the flange of said post. The upper ends of the flanges l8 and I9 are cut out at their upper outer and inner corners, as at 22 and 23, respectively, to also receive the bulb l4 and flange 15 of the upper chord. At the bases of the flanges l8 and IS the plate is slit a distance downwardly so that the upper portion 24 of the body portion of the plate 3 may be bent inwardly in the same direction as the flanges, and then bent upwardly forming a vertical portion 25; the edges of the portion 24 being welded to the flanges, as at 26. The upper portions 21 of the flanges l8 and I9 inwardly of the portion 24, therefore, progressively increase from an acute angle to a right angle at the upper end of the flange, as will be-apparent from Figs. 6 and '7 of the drawings. A slit is also formed from the bottom of the plate upwardly at the base of the flange l8 so that the bottom portion 28 of the plate may be bent inwardly and then downward- 1y, as at 29, flush against the upright portion 6 of the bottom chord 2; this portion and the flange 9 of. the hopper sheet being secured to the portion 6 of the chord 2 by rivets 30. The lower portion 3| of the flange I8 is bent to conform to the inclination of the chamfer I! of the post. Thus the plate may be attached to adjacent posts by welding the base of the flanges to the outer and free edges of the stems I of the posts, and by welding the inner edges of the flanges to the adjacent edges of the base flange of the posts. Therefore, by the cooperation of the flanges of the adjacent plates and the post therebetween a very strong reinforced hollow triangular post is provided, forming stifl'eners for the web of the girder, also vertical beams to transmit horizontal loads imposed thereon by the lading to the chords and posts for the side wall to retain a lading therewithin.

It will be noted in Figs. 3 and 7 that the upper chord extends over and is welded to the upper ends of the adjacent flanges I8 and I9 and stem 1 of the intermediate post and that the vertical flange 15 of the top chord is positioned between these members and the portion 25 of the plate 3; said flange l and portion 25 being also welded together to form a rigid entity.

In the ordinary side plate construction, the plates overlap the flanges of the posts and rivets are placed through said overlapped plate and said flanges, and the heads of said rivets, on the outside of said car, must be within the overall Association of American Railroads limits of car width. Comparing such ordinary construction with my above described invention, it will be seen that I have saved the depth of rivet head plus the width of one side plate, on each side of the car, and thus have increased the lading capacity of the car accordingly. Also it will be noted that neither the top chord nor the bottom chord project outwardly beyond the outer planes of the edge of the stems I or web plates 3.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof, within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. A wall, of girder construction, adapted to form a load retaining means for a railway car, said wall comprising: a top chord, a bottom chord, spaced T-shaped members extending between and secured to said chords with the stems thereof projecting toward the outside of the car, and web plates extending between and secured to the bottom chord and the top chord, the major portion of said web plates being in the plane of the outer edges of the stems of said members, said plates formed with vertical marginal flanges, the apices of said plates and said flanges being secured to said outer edges of said stems and the edges of said flanges being secured to the bases of said T-shaped members, whereby each member in cooperation with the flanges of adjacent plates 'forms a stiffener for the girder and a beam between said chords to retain a load.

2. A wall, of girder construction, adapted to form a load retaining means for a railway car, said wall comprising: a top chord, a bottom chord, spaced T-shaped members extending between and secured to said chords with the stems thereof projecting toward the outside of the car, and web plates extending between and secured to the bottom chord and the top chord, the major portion of said web plates being in the plane of the outer edges of the stems of said members, said plates formed with vertical marginal flanges, the apices of said plates and said flanges being secured to said outeredges of said stems and the edges of said flanges being secured to the edges of the bases of said T-shaped members, whereby each member in cooperation with the flanges of adjacent plates forms a stiffener for the girder and a beam between said chords to retain a load.

3. A structure as defined in claim 1 wherein one end of the bases of each member is chamfered on both sides and the adjacent portions of said adjacent sheet flanges are bent to conform to the chamfered end of said member and are secured thereto to facilitate discharge of lad- 4. A web plate for a girder adapted to form a railway car wall, said plate comprising a body portion, marginal flanges formed on opposite sides of said body portion, the major portion of said flanges being formed at an acute angle and an end portion of each of said flanges progressively increasing to a right angle.

5. A plate as defined in claim 4 wherein said body portion between said end portions of said flanges is bent in the same direction as said flanges and the edges thereof welded to said flanges.

6. A stiffener for a girder adapted to form a railway car wall, said stifl'ener comprising flanges of adjacent wall plates and a T-section member therebetween, the bases of said flanges being secured to the edge of the stem of said T- member and the free edges of said flanges being secured to opposite edges of the base of said T- member, whereby said portions and said T-member cooperate to form a reinforced hollow triangular stifl'ener structure.

'7. A structure as defined in claim 6 wherein one end of thebase of said T-section member is chamfered on both sides and said flanges are bent to conform to the'chamfered end of said T-section member and secured thereto.

JAMES S. SWANN. 

